Scars
by Erin.Lindsay.CPD
Summary: Prompt off my tumblr page (katiedtellez.): Nadia confides in Erin after her first day answering phones in Intelligence.


Erin walked up the steps into District 21 from the back entrance. She had just had a conversation with Jay at Molly's about what was on the USB drive that Jin had sent Jay before he was murdered. Getting into a small argument about what Jay thought was going on between Jin, Internal Affairs and Voight, she stormed out of the bar and drove back to the District, remembering a couple pieces of paperwork she needed to fill out by the morning.

As she walked up the steps she ran into Voight. "Erin. Can I talk to you for a minute?" she nodded and he led her away from the office. "Has Nadia talked to you recently about something bothering her?" Erin shook her head. "No, why?" Voight sighed. "Cause when I told her it was okay if she went home, she refused and said she still had work to do here." The words sounded very familiar to Erin. "Hank..." she started to say, but he shook his head. "She's at her desk. Please talk to her." and with that he left, walking past her and out the back door.

She sighed and started to walk back towards the office. As she got close, she heard a muffled noise. She stopped walking and listened she heard sniffling from the office. "Nadia?" Erin asked, panic in her voice. She quickly walked around the corner and caught Nadia rolling her shirt sleeves back down to her wrists, tears staining her cheeks. She wiped them away with her sleeve and looked back down to paper on her desk, not even looking up at Erin.

Erin touched her arm. "Hey. Nadia, what's wrong?" She asked. Nadia shook her head and made to keep sorting papers when Erin took a step closer. "Nadia. Talk to me." Nadia looked into Erin's eyes for a second before turned her gaze to the ground. Curiously, Erin touched the end if one of Nadia's sleeves and was surprised when she didn't jerk away. She carefully rolled up the young girls sleeve and she saw them. Scars from the heroine needle. Nadia sniffled. "I'm trying to leave all that stuff behind, but every time I look down those are there and I just feel like I can't do it sometimes." Tears began to fall from her eyes again.

Erin sighed and reached over, grabbing Atwaters desk chair and sat down next to her. "You won't. You will not go back to that. I won't let you." She said and Nadia shook her head once more. "How do you know, Lindsay? How do you know I won't screw up again? These are gonna be there forever!" Nadia yelled, more disappointed than angry.

Erin nodded her head. "I know." Them she lifted the sleeve on her shirt to her elbow and turned her arm up. There on her arm were scars. Though they were almost identical to Nadia's, they were so faint from age that they were barely there. Heroine needle scars. "I know." Erin said once more staring that Nadia's shocked face. Nadia's eye were wide as she stared at the arm of her friend. Her mentor.

"You won't go back to that." Erin broke a short amount of silence. "I didn't." Erin rolled her sleeve back down. "These scars remind us that the past is real. That our mistakes will be there for the rest of our lives. And they're there to teach us. And they're there for us to know what not to do." Tears threatened to fall from Erin's eyes. "That is how I knew that you were on heroine when we first met. I was the exact same way not 12 years ago. Look how far I've come, and I know you'll go farther, Nadia."She smiled at the girl in front of her.

"You know, when I first became a cop, I was up here all the time, just wanting to do what I do today. I wanted to be like Voight. But after every single day, after everyone was gone and all the lights were out... I would sit at Voight's desk and just feel so disappointed in myself. Why? Because I was ashamed of what I had done and thought that I didn't deserve this."

Nadia let fresh tears leave her eyes as she smiled at Erin. "Ummm..." she started. "I think I wanna be a cop. Like you." Erin was shocked by the statement. The her face softened. "You can be anything you want as long as you set your heart to it. And I will be there to help you." Nadia smiled and then she reached forward and wrapped her arms around Erin's shoulders. "Thank you, Erin." Erin smiled.

"You got it."

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><p><em><strong>If you have a prompt you would like me to write, please leave it in the reviews below and I'll do my best to write it for you! :)<strong>_


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